4 Responses

I had a horrible experience with my son’s center. One day he had gotten off the bus at the daycare center and one of the staff told him his grandfather was there to pick him up, the older gentleman told my son “let’s go”, my son was confused but thought the man was someone I worked with and that I had sent him to pick him up. He got in the car with the man and they drove off. The man started talking to my son asking him various questions that my son had no idea what he was talking about. Come to find out this man had taken the WRONG child, so he turned around and brought my son back. Even WORSE…the daycare NEVER contacted me about the incident and my son was the one who told me. Well after I lost my mind completely on the staff, I demanded the Director call me. When she did her whole attitude was that she needed to cover her rear in case I was going to sue (which I had no plans on doing and still don’t), so not only would she NOT apologize, by the end of the call she was saying it was my SON’S fault for going. Needless to say after that comment she heard the dial tone. Next morning his dad called the Office of Family Services who is now investigating the whole issue. The investigator was amazed at all the details my son was able to provide with no hesitation and tended to believe him over the daycare saying they did nothing wrong. That day was his LAST day and we now have arranged for him to stay with an elder neighbor after school which in long run I think will benefit BOTH of them. Sad part is, all they needed to do was apologize, admit the mistake and reassure me the procedures would change. Nope instead she was worried about covering her tush.

Wow, that is a scary story posted by Interested. My mother ran a certified in-home daycare and that sort of thing would NEVER have happened there. Granted, she was only allowed to care for 14 kids with her two employees and herself, so she knew basically everyone and anyone who would be getting the kids at the end of the day. And if it was someone new, she made sure to ask the parents to introduce her to the new person before they would be picking up the children!

I didn’t have a daycare problem, but I can share a schoolbus driver problem. When I was in grade school, my brother was five years behind me and I would get him off the bus when my mother was working. One day, bus came and no brother got off. So I called my mother, but she wasn’t available. Now mind you, I’m like 12 years old here…I called the school and they were like, “Uhm, sorry, it’s after hours and there isn’t anyone here to help you.” So I whipped out hte phone book and found the bus garage number and called THERE. I finally got someone to check the bus and lo and behold — my little brother was fast asleep in the back of the bus at the bus lot! The driver hadn’t gotten up and gone to the back to check when he parked, turned off the bus and left in the middle of May! They put him on a mini-bus and drove him home for me. My mom was livid, of course. Luckily it worked out all right in the end.

Without getting into too many details (since we have an upcoming court date scheduled), my husband and I have a small claims case against our former daycare provider. The provider was worried about losing their license because our breastfed son was refusing a bottle in their care, even though our pediatrician did not share their concerns about him being dehydrated. After our son going there for 2 1/2 weeks then being refused until we had a medical release note signed by his peds, we submitted our two week notice; the next day, the provider terminated his contract without offering a refund of the initial deposit. Lesson learned: get your references and remember that it doesn’t mean anything when an in-home family group daycare has their OCFS license…

Fortunately his new daycare is /wonderful/ and we couldn’t be happier with them